NSE seeks road sector reform

Minna branch of Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE), has stressed the need to urgently come up with road sector reform that would allow for private sector participation to ensure availability of funds and technical support services for road pavement management system.

The chairman of the branch, Prof (Eng) Mohammed Baba Ndaliman, said in a news conference, yesterday, that the call was necessitated by the failing federal and state road in Niger State, recently.

He explained that the reforms were in tandem with global best practices in road pavement management system as governments, at all levels, did not have the capacity to efficiently fund road construction and maintenance.

Prof Ndaliman said, “There is the urgent need to come up with road sector reforms that would allow for private sector participation to assure sustainable road pavement management system.”

While decrying the state of roads in Niger State, he was quick to state that the roads were failing because they were taking loads that are beyond their capacity and lifespan hence, the need for the reforms.

He gave an example of the recently collapsed culvert along Bida-Minna road, saying that the road was cut off as a result of the failure arch metal pipe culvert that has long exceeded their design life.

Consequently, the society recommended that the culvert along Bida-Minna road should be replaced by a well-planned programme of activity based on available cash flow to be implemented on the state roads in phases.

The chairman of Nigeria Society of Engineers has also recommended that both federal and state governments should make joint effort to install weighbridges at strategic locations to check and mitigate the effect of overloaded vehicles plying the roads as well as make them comply with legal axle load limit.